Overcoming the Wall on Recessed Doors

Commercial outward swinging doors can be some of the most difficult forcible entry situations due to the locking systems and added fortification but what is often overlooked in training is access challenges. The outward swinging door below was on the back of a commercial building. You can see this situation has a half wall on the hinge side and the jamb side is recessed in the masonry block. While few would consider this “confined space forcible entry” it still limits the working area. The half wall may prevent the use of a married hook here and the recessed jamb limits the prying ability of our adze.

You can see that the Halligan is going to max out before we even use half of our full prying range of this bar, this could easily prevent us from getting enough leverage to force the door.

The upside to this situation is that end of row bricks and block are very weak points and can be blown out easily with a strike to the corner with the flat head creating ample room for a full force.

You can now return to your Halligan and properly set the tool all the way behind the door. When you pry outwards you will have the full range of motion and gain the maximum amount of pry and throw from your Halligan.

This can be difficult to fully explain and see the advantage of this tactic in photos. Below are two quick videos showing how effective crushing the block can be. The first is on a door that is welded shut in masonry block, it is not a good example of progress in forcible entry due to the weld however it shows masonry block being defeated.

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